I Won't Give Up
by xxredemption-love-and-liesxx
Summary: How Sasuke returned to Sakura. [SS] [pre-Gaiden]


**Notes:** You guys have to _love_ how often I randomly disappear without a trace. Italics are letters—to Sasuke, duh. Well, letters _for_ Sasuke which she didn't show him. Ah, whatever. I liked this sort of format, even if extremely confusing.

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 **I Won't Give Up**

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 _And I won't give up on us_

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 _It had been such a long time since I had seen you._

 _I remember hearing Ino and some other girls I was friends with telling me—pleading with me—to find someone else. Someone who was always home._

 _But I love you._

 _I couldn't give up on you. Not when you had left me with a promise—the promise to come home._

 _I knew that you needed your time to find yourself; to be able to understand the world—to make up for everything._

 _Some things that these girls didn't know was that you left me little things. Flowers, notes, trinkets. Things that you had found on your travels._

 _The flowers were always beautiful and appeared to never wilt._

 _The notes had simple words in your elegant writings._

 _The trinkets could have been anything: gems, jewellery. Things that you found._

 _But they—the girls—would always comment on the new necklace I would be wearing, or the ring I would be wearing on my pinkie._

 _I just said that someone had given it to me._

 _Of course, they would never assume it was you—and instead thought that I was finally, finally being courted by someone._

.

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 _It was a cold winter one time. Very cold. For our home, it didn't really get that cold. I only remember that it had snowed once or twice in my childhood._

 _It snowed that year._

 _Christmas was getting close and I had decided that I would rest at home—celebrate on my own, or with whoever would show up._

 _You were the one that showed up._

 _I remember uttering your name—Sasuke-kun—in pure shock._

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He had ended up on my doorstep with snow in his dark hair, and he looked a little chilled. He was wearing heavier clothing then. I noticed right away that he had changed his hair style, and I was at a loss of not being able to see his mismatched eyes.

"Sakura."

It was always the same. The same sort of greeting.

"Sasuke-kun…"

 _Always_.

No matter how me met.

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 _You had stayed for dinner and said that you would need to depart soon, but without not giving me a quick kiss to the lips before disappearing right before me._

 _I didn't understand then… I didn't understand what that meant. Did you like me the same way?_

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 _Months had passed and I hadn't seen you in a while. I was getting worried. Were you gone for good again, Sasuke-kun? I hadn't even seen_ notes _from you, or those flowers and trinkets._

 _It was like you were keeping your distance. I didn't understand and it made me a nervous wreck._

.

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Ino and Hinata were there for me then, saying that Sasuke was being foolish and merely using me. Well, Ino was saying that, anyways. Hinata just sat there silently, watching me with sad, pearl eyes. She and Naruto had their happy ending.

Yet I didn't have mine.

At least, then I didn't.

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It was spring the next time I saw him.

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 _You were sitting at the bench—the bench where you left me the first time and the second time, in a more happier way. You were sitting there. Patiently. Waiting._

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"How long were you—"

He captured me in his arms, standing up only as fast as someone as Sasuke would be able to. His body shielded mine from the elements and his hand was behind my back, and his missing arm was—

"Sakura…" he gasped.

My name. It was like—

"I'm home."

At that, I was choked up and was near tears.

"Sasuke-kun!"

.

.

 _I know that you won't see these messages, but you coming home—it made me so happy. You were here. With me. Promising me things that I_ know _you would keep_.

.

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We travelled. Everywhere. To every place imaginable. Or even _un_ imaginable.

It was amazing. It was beautiful.

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Then…

Then…

We conceived our daughter: Sarada.

All because we didn't give up.

She is the physical manifestation of our love. And… nothing, not even your absence—in order to protect us; the world—will change that.

I still won't give up.

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 _Thank you for everything, Sasuke-kun_.

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Fin

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End file.
